Thursday, 19 November 2015

It's a bit hard to imagine a Christmas tree standing in our flat soon as outside it has spring-like temperatures (which is way too warm for this time of year and mainly causes a lot of people naughty headaches)...but here I am: unusually early with sharing some Christmas crafting on my blog.

I had bought some simple Christmas tree ornaments at a Dollar store ages ago and when tidying up my studio lately (being on the search for something completely different of course) I stumbled upon them. (I love those happy re-finds...that is almost as if you have just been shopping crafts stuff without having paid any money...lol).

As you can see the ornaments were plain white and really begged for a make-over. They had a thin coat of varnish on them already so I didn't have to seal them before I used the crackle paint on them.

I used DecoArt media white Crackle Paint and tinted it with a bit of Phtalo Green-Yellow media fluid acrylic. Then I applied the mix to the tree using a palette knife.

I made sure I made some dapping motions as well with the palette knife to create a lot of texture as shown with the image above.

Once the crackling process was finished and all had dried, I created my own spray paint from some drops of Burnt Umber media fluid acrylic and water. I sprayed it on quite generously so it would pool and seep into the cracks and crevices.

While the paint was still (very) wet I went in with some squirts from the White media Shimmer Mister bottle so the colours would mix and create random marbling patterns. Where I found I had added too much of the white paint I just went in with the brown spray paint again...

Now my trees looked wonderfully grungy and worn!

The ornaments also took the speeding up the drying time with the heat tool pretty well (lucky me! - being a very impatient crafter when it comes to drying times).

For a finish I painted the edges with Quinacridone Burnt Orange and then sprinkled on some Metallic Gold media fluid acrylic and a bit of the Quinacridone Burnt Orange as well for a more festive look.

After my ornaments had dried I inserted some rough thread for hanging them on the tree...but I can also imagine using one of them on a Christmas card or canvas....

I also left the other ornament's edges white for a more delicate look. You could also use the Metallic Gold for painting the edges...aaaah, the possibilities! ;)

I hope you like them and are inspired to go search your stash for some ornaments to alter... ;)

Saturday, 14 November 2015

That is the "challenge" over at lovely Kim Dellow's "Show Your Face" community event for November.

And this is my share for starters:

When I think about painted faces the portraits by Amedeo Modigliani are the first ones that come to my mind in the very first place. I love how simple his portraits look and yet he has managed to capture a very intimate moment where the portrayed person's face allows us to take a look behind the facade and reveals something deeply intimate or even the persons' very natures.

For some examples that have especially impressed me click HERE or HERE.

Being way too over-focussed on a natural look with my drawings or paintings I challenged myself this time to try and follow Modigliani's way of elongating the faces' proportions (but still let them feel quite natural and touching instead of artificial).

I also love his way of applying the paint to the canvas...but as it is one step at a time when trying something new, I decided to just focus on this one aspect for a start.

I needed a photograph with a person whose facial expression was somehow special, meaningful, touching...and I found a picture of a guy in a home decor magazine who is at work in his pottery studio and obviously loving what he does. So my aim was to try capture the wonderful expression on his face - as this is what makes Modigliani's portraits so wonderful to me.

I used a (very) small canvas for my experiment and made a rough and quick sketch with a soft pencil first.

Then I went in with a fine tip brush and did the black lines first. I knew that some would get lost during the painting process anyway so I didn't spend too much time on being very precise with that step.

Next I started to build up layers of paint, trying to use colour tones close to the ones Modigliani used with his portraits.

As you can see I didn't stick to the colours of the photograph. I focussed on the face and on trying to let go of my usual over-accurateness that most of the time "kills" my paintings or drawings. I think I could have been even more brave with elongating the proportions....but hey - maybe a second try will get me (and the portrait) closer to that Modigliani feel. ;)

I am super curious about the other faces that will be shared over at Kim's place this time!

Sunday, 1 November 2015

As we know that most of you are already busy creating for Christmas (gosh! It is approaching so fast!), we thought a challenge that is open for two months instead of just one might give more opportunity for a little Christmas crafting break to create some steampunk or industrial themed stamped, altered, mixed media project....almost every kind of project is welcome (cards, tags, canvasses,...) - except totally digitally created projects (there are more than enough challenge blogs for these).

And there will of course be two prizes instead of just one to be given away. So I hope you will join in during the next two months. And make sure you also check out the makes of team B that will be presented on the 1st December this time!